


kin

by hokkaidont



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Explicit Sexual Content, Friends to Lovers, Incest Kink, M/M, but no actual blood-related incest, thanhyp and persephone/nyx if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:00:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27636511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hokkaidont/pseuds/hokkaidont
Summary: Brother? Lover?Both?Thanatos grapples with what Zagreus is to him.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 188





	kin

**Author's Note:**

> if anything in this fic contradicts canon, sorry. creative liberties in the name of brocon
> 
> i did want to say this—i had a conversation a while back with someone who was adopted about how the idea of incest being “less problematic” between adopted siblings is hurtful because it implies they’re “not really” siblings. i’m not trying to say anything like that at all, but it is a multilayered concept and I’m trying to explore it in line with the way that the source material gives it to us

The last of the battle cries and shrill screeches of metal on metal have died into the night. It’s not quiet by definition, but it is in comparison; the moans of the suffering and long-dying are like whispers after the screams of horses and the buzzing of flies can’t compare to the thunder of armored bodies crashing and heaving. It’s a moment of calm in the never ending turmoil, chaos subsiding in the cool and dark of night. It’s a good moment to take a break, even as disease and cold run rampant through the camp followers, even as the work is never done. 

On the crest that overlooks the muddied, corpse-strewn field, Ares says, “I learned something interesting lately.”

“What is it?” Thanatos asks. He’s not often one for idle chatter, but he doesn’t mind Ares, doesn’t mind their conversations breaking up the endlessness of his work, and he knows the feeling is mutual. 

“I have kin I wasn’t previously aware of,” Ares says. “A cousin. My family just learned of his existence. We would like to welcome him home to us.” He pauses. “The Prince of the Underworld, they call him.”

Thanatos’s head snaps up, eyes narrowing as he stares at Ares.

“Oh.” A smile curls on Ares’s lips. “I take it that you know him, then.”

Know him? The degree of that verb seems too weak. Does a fish know the sea? Does a sword know its sheath? Thanatos feels anger like the thrust of a spear.

“He isn’t your kin,” Thanatos says sharply. “He’s mine.”

Ares doesn’t stop looking amused. “He’s both, isn’t he? The son of Hades and Nyx, I assume. Hades is my uncle. Nyx is your mother. I suppose through him you and I are related as well, if not by blood.”

Thanatos angles his head away so he doesn’t have to look at Ares’s persisting smile, and so that Ares might not see the grit of his teeth. The truth is that Zagreus isn’t Thanatos’s brother, not in the way they’re talking about, not in the way Hypnos and Charon are, and because that wrenches a jagged hole open in Thanatos’s chest he can’t bring himself to say it aloud. He has no ownership over Zagreus. Unlike Ares, he’s not Zagreus’s anything.

“I suppose so,” he manages to answer.

“It seems he’s trying to escape the underworld,” Ares goes on conversationally. “He can’t simply transport himself from there as you can, I take it, so my family and I have been—”

“He’s  _ what _ ?” Thanatos asks. 

“Oh, you mean to say you didn’t know? Yes, he’s trying to make his way to the surface. It sounds to be a perilous journey but he’s doing an admirable job of it, leaving a trail of violence and destruction in his wake. Inspiring, really.”

Shocked speechless as he talks, Thanatos only stares. It’s impossible. Ares must be lying. There’s no way that Zagreus would leave without saying something to him. There’s no way that Zagreus would leave in the first place—he can’t. He can’t go. He wouldn’t leave his home, his place, his family. 

He wouldn’t leave Thanatos. 

“I’ve got to go,” Thanatos says to Ares, who still hasn’t stopped smiling.

Thanatos would put the point of his scythe through that grin right now if he could, but instead, he vanishes in a cold green flash of light. 

* * *

“He’s your  _ son _ ,” Thanatos says. 

He would never use a tone of anger when speaking to his mother, but this is the closest he’s ever gotten. He feels the hot pulse of it beneath his skin, barely contained by the cool outer layer of his disposition. It hasn’t left him since his conversation with Ares, carried with him just as dutifully as his scythe and twice as sharp. It’s not just directed at Zagreus for leaving, but also at everyone else here who enabled him to. 

“He is not my son as you are, child,” Nyx responds, ever even. 

Thanatos doesn’t need Nyx’s reminder of that. He knows. He knows just looking at the mess of Zagreus’s dark hair, at the mismatched colors of his eyes, worlds different from the respective silver and pure piercing gold of Thanatos’s and Hypnos’s, together born fatherless from Nyx’s womb. Everyone knows this, knows that Zagreus wasn’t created from Nyx’s body, but knowing a fact and confronting it are often two different things.

It doesn’t  _ fix _ anything, for one.

“But still,” Thanatos says. “You would just let him leave?”

“Not let him,” Nyx says. “Encouraged him to. He wished for it desperately.” She pauses. “And perhaps he is capable of contacting our queen.”

Selfish is the last word Thanatos would ever consider using to describe his mother, but he can’t help thinking it now in regards to her motives. 

At least until he looks at her, and catches something in her face that he would dare call  _ emotion _ . Her eyes are not as clear as usual, are seeing something far away. He’d been a child when she’d left, but he knows his mother had been fond of Persephone. In a flash of realization like the electric shock of Zeus’s lightning, he wonders if how he feels right now is how his mother must have felt when Persephone had fled the underworld. 

It quiets his anger, but brings forth a raging storm of grief instead. It’s not better. He has no desire to imagine the hardship that his mother has lived through in the future of his own life, each of them existing without someone they care for so intensely. 

But it’s not as though Persephone was Nyx’s  _ family _ . She can’t possibly understand. Thanatos doesn’t know the details of the nature of the feelings that existed between them, but surely his feelings for Zagreus outweigh them, don’t they?

Then again, it’s not as though Zagreus is Thanatos’s family, either. His ribcage constricts. 

“What does he need her for anyway?” he asks. “You’re the only mother he’s ever known. He has you. He has us.”

“Perhaps you should speak to him on that, child,” Nyx says. 

* * *

Thanatos does. He does speak to him, and he learns that Zagreus isn’t  _ really _ leaving, not for any permanent amount of time, and his emotions cool like the snow that blankets the surface. He can breathe properly again, which is strange because he didn’t realize how much his lungs ached until they don’t anymore. His thoughts and emotions become clearer to him. He learns, against all odds, that he is  _ in love _ . 

Then, once again defying his expectations, it turns out that these feelings aren’t one-sided. He finds himself suddenly happy, suddenly in Zagreus’s bed, suddenly on the receiving end of kisses and handjobs and teasing affectionate words. 

It’s a better outcome than he ever could have imagined. 

The original problem still pokes at the back of his mind, though. It frustrates him, that his bond with Charon and someone like Hypnos can be so permanent, unbreakable, but what he and Zagreus are growing between them feels as fragile as glass in comparison. Their hold over each other does not extend to having been birthed by the same mother, to having developed in the same womb. Either of them could reject it, walk away from it, whenever they want, and then they would be nothing. 

Which, Thanatos supposes, is maybe for the best. He wants to know that Zagreus is truly happy, and not with him because of some predetermined obligation. And yet it still feels so tenuous. He likes what they have, but he doesn’t like acknowledging, still, that Zagreus is not, in fact, his brother. 

He doesn’t mean for it to come up, or to come between them. But, as problems are wont to do, it eventually makes itself known.

* * *

“What’s on your mind, Than?” Zagreus asks. “You’re somehow managing to seem moodier than usual.”

Thanatos would take offense if he didn’t already have the sneaking suspicion that Zagreus finds his moodiness endearing. 

The prince in question lounges on his bed, while Thanatos, having just arrived fresh from gathering the newly-dead, stands in the center of the room. Zagreus’s bedchamber has become a favored spot of Thanatos’s as of late, the first place he visits when he catches a moment or two of free time, though he hasn’t made the move to sit down beside Zagreus as he normally would, lost in his own thoughts. 

“Come on, out with it,” says Zagreus, and Thanatos knows better than to think he can just play it off. Zagreus likes to talk.

“You thought Nyx was your birthmother,” Thanatos says, picking his words carefully. He doesn’t know how this will be received. “You thought you were her child.”

Zagreus looks at him questioningly, but seems thoughtful when he says, “I guess so, yeah.”

He pats the space on the bed next to him, inviting Thanatos over to sit, but Thanatos ignores him in favor of flexing his hand inside his gauntlet, feeling its joints pivot. 

“You grew up thinking that you and I were brothers,” Thanatos says. 

Zagreus’s nose scrunches up in something almost like amusement. 

“I never really thought about it that hard, to be honest,” he says. “I guess I knew that was what logically followed, with Nyx being your mother and all, but it didn’t really seem relevant. I mean, look at us. We couldn’t be more different.”

Thanatos frowns. “Didn’t it… upset you? To learn we weren’t related? To not feel like Nyx’s son anymore?”

“I was a bit too preoccupied with the fact that everyone had been lying to me and that my birth mother was out there to consider things like that, honestly.”

“Ah,” says Thanatos, and tries not to feel disappointed. He’s not sure what he expected. He knew this. He knew this about Zagreus, and yet— 

“I’m sorry I didn’t have much thought to spare for you back then, Than,” Zagreus says, sitting up. “It’s not an excuse, but there was a lot going on. I really should’ve said something to you.”

“No, that’s not it,” Thanatos replies. He heaves a sigh. “It’s fine. Never mind.”

“It’s obviously not fine. What’s going on?”

Thanatos weighs the pros and cons of fleeing the situation. He could drop this, make the excuse of having work to do, disappear, and never bring it up again. It’s not even something that should be bothering him, he knows. He doesn’t understand why it’s still on his mind. 

But it is. 

And he knows, just like Zagreus, he can’t run from things forever. With the weight of resignation, he wets his lips with his tongue, and then opens his mouth to speak again. 

“It really didn’t bother you that we’re not brothers?”

The look Zagreus gives him in response is shrewd and searching. Thanatos immediately regrets the question, knowing that he’s revealed too much of his feelings, of himself. He weathers the stare as placidly as he can. 

“Did you  _ want _ to be brothers?” Zagreus asks. 

_ Yes _ , thinks Thanatos, but he can’t say that so emphatically. 

“It seemed ideal,” he replies instead, casually, flippantly, as though it isn’t something he’s spent hours thinking about. “I did wish for it. To have that sort of irreversible relationship with you.”

“Irreversible? Than,” Zagreus says carefully, and his tone makes it clear that he’s seen to the heart of the situation too easily. “Do you think what we have now is  _ reversible _ ?”

“No,” Thanatos says. He looks away. “No.”

But Zagreus keeps looking at him. He leans forward, though there are still feet between them.

“Thanatos, I want to make it clear that I care about you deeply. There are other ways to lay claim to me, you know. Just because we aren’t brothers doesn’t mean you don’t have me.”

The words are soothing like the cool touch of night, but Thanatos still feels himself letting out an agitated exhale. 

“I know,” he says. “You are my dearest friend from childhood. We’ve known each other for a long time.”

“Oh, come on,” Zagreus says. “I think we’re a little more than that. I’m committed to you, Than, and to our relationship.”

It helps. It does help to hear, and Thanatos is grateful for it. 

But Zagreus can tell his feelings have not completely abated, because he says, “Doesn’t that make it even more meaningful? That I’m choosing to be with you? Not forced to by some bond of blood, but because I love you?”

Heat flares in Thanatos’s cheeks, in his chest. It’s far different from the heat of anger he felt before. It’s a good heat, somehow, touching him in equal parts with crippling embarrassment and joy. It’s not the first time Zagreus has said those words, but every time is like this. He grips the handle of his scythe tighter and looks away from him. 

“Yes,” he says, straining to keep his voice even.

Zagreus goes on. “You know, I’ve heard from the shades that mortals think romantic and sexual relations between relatives are immoral. By their standards we’re doing it right.”

“Mortals are ignorant,” Thanatos replies, still not looking at Zagreus and grateful for the reprieve from such shameless declarations. “Relationships like that between kin are common both on Olympus and here.”

Zagreus looks at him quietly for a moment.

“You’re starting to make me nervous, Than. Are you in love with Hypnos and Charon too, because they’re your brothers? Not that there’d be a problem if you were, I just wish that you would tell me—“

“No, I—” Thanatos speaks quickly, and then cuts himself off. “No.” Hypnos is an entirely different matter that he’s sure they’ll need to speak on someday, but he isn’t necessarily involved in the scope of the current conversation. “I’m committed to you too, Zag.”

“Okay,” Zagreus says. Again, he pats the surface of the bed next to him. “Then what’s the problem?”

This time, Thanatos relents and sits beside him, after propping his weapons against the wall. He pulls down his hood and looks into Zagreus’s multicolored eyes. He doesn’t know exactly how to explain the things that he’s feeling. Or at least, how to explain them in a way that doesn’t expose his soul in the most excruciating way. 

But he knows that Zagreus won’t understand him unless he tells him. 

“I want to have you,” he says, “in every way.”

Zagreus, rather than being frightened or overwhelmed by the statement as Thanatos might have imagined, smiles. 

“Well, that’s good,” he replies. “I want you to have me in every way. But I think I get what you’re saying. You’re frustrated that we can’t have  _ more _ . That it’s something we won’t ever share.”

Thanatos nods. “I guess that sounds about right.”

“Well, I can’t change that,” Zagreus says, “but I can tell you that I’m biologically an only child, and as much as I love my newfound family, the way that I love you is more encompassing than the way I love anybody else. Again, Than, I’m  _ choosing _ to be with you, even if we don’t share blood.”

Zagreus leans in closer to him, takes his hand from where it’s sitting on the bed between them, and pulls it into his lap. 

“Anyway,” Zagreus says, “since I  _ was _ raised by Nyx, aren’t I your brother in every way that matters?”

Thanatos gives up. Like in the fields of Elysium or the depths of Tartarus when Zagreus’s speed with his sword or reach with his rail is more than Thanatos can keep up with, Thanatos must now concede defeat to him, and to the warmth and relief of the emotion that’s washing up through him, too. 

He lets Zagreus close the gap between them. Lets him rest a strong hand against his cheek and draw him in until their lips brush. He exhales at the touch, pleased and pacified, enjoying the way even this gentle, casual contact from Zagreus seems to leave his nerve endings ablaze. His own hands drift to Zagreus’s body, to the folds of his clothes over his hard muscles, and the kiss deepens as he shifts closer, wanting to press more of himself to Zagreus. 

“Thanks, Zag,” Thanatos says when he drags his mouth downward, lips ghosting against Zagreus’s jaw. 

“Anytime,” Zagreus replies, his thumb wandering, finding Thanatos’s exposed nipple, and giving it a gentle tweak. 

In retaliation, Thanatos bites him on the neck, on the collarbone, leaving mottled purple marks where everyone will surely see. They’ll be gone the next time Zagreus dies and comes up again through the Pool of Styx, but in the meantime it’s clear who decorated him, and how. Thanatos likes that, likes it more than he wants to admit, and sits back to admire his work on Zagreus’s skin before Zagreus draws near and occupies his mouth again with something deep and consuming and powerful. 

When Thanatos next comes up for air, it’s because Zagreus has transferred his attentions from kissing to freeing Thanatos of his clothes. Already feeling dizzied and less inhibited than usual, Thanatos makes a decision.

“Say it,” he murmurs. 

“Hm?” Zagreus asks absently, kiss-drunk and languid and hands busy with Thanatos’s belt. 

“If we were both raised by Nyx, and you’re my brother, say it,” Thanatos says. 

Zagreus’s mind is clearly absorbed by the fastenings of Thanatos’s clothes between them. “Say what?”

“Call me brother.”

Thanatos watches Zagreus pause, watches the wicked smile spread across his face, and for a terrifying second, Thanatos wonders if he’s made a mistake. 

“Oh, do you like that?” Zagreus asks. 

And next thing Thanatos knows, he’s flat on his back, and Zagreus is looming over him, expression dark and handsome, clothes already rumpled and hair tousled from Thanatos’s own wandering hands. 

“Do you want me to give you my cock, dear brother?”

Thanatos twitches hard under his draped clothes, his breath now coming a little faster, his heart rate picking up speed. 

“Yes,” he says, sounding a little more desperate than he’d intended. “Yes.”

Their clothes come off, left in careless, scattered piles on the floor where they land. Zagreus gets up from the bed to fetch his corked jar of oil from where he’d left it at the foot of the Mirror of Night when Thanatos had fucked him against it only a day or two ago. Thanatos watches him, watches the muscles of his back down to the strong calves that carry him, and meets his warm eyes, his winning smile when he turns to come back. 

They kiss again, warm and fierce and passionate, as Zagreus props himself up over him. Oil drizzled generously into his hand, he works Thanatos open, one finger, then two, then three, kissing the breath straight out of his lungs until Thanatos is lightheaded and weak under him. Zagreus is hard against his hip, their skin slippery and sliding with sweat and oil, and Thanatos aches with the need for them to join together.

Once Zagreus is satisfied with his preparations and has driven Thanatos to the brink of insanity, he removes his fingers and slicks himself up. Thanatos watches him, watches his nimble fingers glide up and down his shaft, and his heart beats loud and fast in his chest. 

“Go on,” Zagreus says, catching his eye and grinning knowingly. “Ask for it.”

“Zagreus.” Thanatos tries to keep his voice tight and controlled. 

But Zagreus knows what he wants, and shows it by dragging the head of his cock over Thanatos’s hole, just shy of pushing in. Thanatos needs it, needs the weight of it inside him like his godly body has never needed anything before in his life. 

“Well?” Zagreus says, seeing the look on his face, idly sliding his palm over Thanatos’s leaking tip, making his hips jolt. 

“Please,” Thanatos manages.

“Please…?”

“Brother. Brother,  _ please _ —”

Zagreus laughs, low and delighted and hoarse with want, and slides in. 

He leans down close as he fucks him, one arm looped around his waist to press their bodies as near each other as they can get, Thanatos’s hips rising off the bed to receive everything of Zagreus that he’s able. Zagreus sets an unrelenting pace, rough and driving in the way he knows Thanatos likes to be taken, his other hand finding his on the bed and interlocking their fingers. He sprinkles bites and kisses over his collarbones, his shoulders, his chest, his jaw, and when he comes to nip at his ear he does it with whispers and murmurs of  _ brother, brother _ . 

Thanatos moans. He lets himself get carried away in it, entire body thrumming with what Zagreus is giving him. And he allows himself to think that maybe it doesn’t matter if they’re connected by blood or by choice. This, right here, regardless, is everything he could ever want. And Zagreus gives it to him freely. 

Thanatos spills first. He clings to Zagreus, thighs shaking, head thrown back, a sound on his lips he thinks he would only ever make in the presence of this man. Then he holds him, riding along with his thrusts until Zagreus comes too, hot and wet deep inside of him. 

Their motions slow to a stop, Zagreus’s weight heavy on Thanatos’s heaving chest. He likes him there, even as the surface of their skin cools and becomes tacky. He’s warm, but not too hot, not like the burning rays of the sun on the surface or the intense heat that rises from the rivers of magma in Asphodel.

“Satisfied?” Zagreus asks when he finally catches his breath and rolls off of him. 

Thanatos feels a smile tugging at his lips.  _ With you? Never _ .

“For now,” Thanatos replies, and goes to sit up and push off the bed. 

A hand snags his wrist. He looks down to see Zagreus sprawled, his body relaxed but his face concerned. 

“I meant, are you feeling better?” 

Thanatos takes the hand on his arm and raises it to his lips, kissing the knuckles. 

“I am. Thank you, Zag.”

“Of course,” Zagreus replies. “You can’t stay?”

He knows he can’t. But he also knows he’ll be back. 

So it doesn’t feel as bad to say, “Mortals are waiting for me,” as Thanatos wipes down his skin and pulls on his clothes. 

As he grabs his scythe from where it’s resting against the wall, he looks back one last time at Zagreus, lounging naked on his bed. He finds him gazing at him, mouth curled pleasantly. Despite everything that’s happened today, this is the thing that makes Thanatos flush again. He pulls his hood up over his head. 

“See you later,” he says, tone gruff to cover up his embarrassment. 

“Goodbye,  _ brother _ ,” Zagreus replies, smile growing. 

Thanatos disappears before his humiliation can get the better of him. 

But he will return to Zagreus’s bed later, and tomorrow, and every day after. And he’ll do so knowing that blood relation or not, Zagreus is with him, in every way they can have. 

**Author's Note:**

> a few people I wanna thank because they’re cool:  
> -wesley, for being an amazing last-minute beta AND supporting me and this fic before she even knew i was the one writing it  
> -meeokie, who is always there for me every step of the way in everything i do  
> -micah, for actively letting me know i’m not alone in finding thanzag pseudo-incest compelling
> 
> i like to ramble about sibling incest on my twitter a lot [here](https://twitter.com/hokkaidont)  
> i also have a regular twitter where I talk/write a lot about regular old vanilla thanzag, so hmu if you want that one


End file.
